The University of Waterloo's Developing Programming Principles course for software engineering undergrads also provides insight into secure coding practice, covering topics such as tracing and debugging. In Software Testing and Quality Assurance students learn how to build a reliable system through lectures on structural and functional testing, integration and system testing, software reliability and quality assurance.

While students in Waterloo get knowledge on secure programming, Hengartner believes 'we can definitely do better.' He says the university is planning to hire more faculty staff to teach software security and design more security-related courses. The university plans to introduce an additional security course on an experimental basis to determine whether there is sufficient interest among students.

Likewise, existing software developers should undergo regular refresh training in order to upgrade their knowledge on secure code practices and techniques, Lethbridge says.

'Security, usability and reliability are needed to improve the software infrastructure,' he says. 'Unfortunately, my experience in the industry is that, at the moment, the amount of training that they do on the workforce is not as deep as it should be.'